If Rodri and Nico are two of Manchester City’s midfield pieces who will be the third player in midfield? | OneFootball

It’s not a solution that we will see in action this season but you do feel that Rodri and Nico will become the key pillars of Manchester City’s midfield from next season. Their games do appear to be ideally suited to playing alongside each other in midfield. The frustration is that we won’t see them play together this season. Perhaps it is something we will get a glimpse of at the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer.

But looking ahead who the third piece of Pep Guardiola’s midfield will be is an interesting topic to ponder as a look ahead to what Manchester City’s rebuild will look like. There are options in City’s squad that could play alongside Rodri and Nico. One player is Phil Foden. He has always appeared destined to one day step into the role that Kevin De Bruyne has played during his time at the club. Foden playing with Rodri and Nico could be the option that Pep Guardiola has earmarked going forward. It is a tantalising proposition to consider based on the strengths of all three players. Foden, going forward with Rodri and Nico behind him, does appear to be a solid midfield base for Pep Guardiola to employ.

Adding an athletic midfielder will change Manchester City’s midfield dynamic entirely.

You also have the sense that Manchester City should target an athletic and technically gifted midfielder this summer. Players such as Ederson from Atalanta, Carlos Baleba from Brighton or Bruno Guimaraes, for example, would add this to City’s midfield. You add one of them to Nico and Rodri and City’s midfield is a different beast entirely. It would give Pep Guardiola a midfield that is physically capable of playing the way so many of City’s rivals play. We have seen that Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne and Mateo Kovacic aren’t capable of keeping up with their more athletic opponents. You add a physical beast to the mix of City’s Spanish midfielders and that equation does change dramatically.

The next iteration of Manchester City’s midfield does appear to have Rodri and Nico at the heart of it.  But who joins them could change the dynamic of Pep Guardiola’s side entirely. First we have to see Nico and Rodri play together which is some way off just yet. But the base is their for Manchester City to build the midfield around it’s just a matter of who the other player will be and what they will add to the equation which needs solving at this stage.